City of Hialeah v. Harris

• Decision Date: 22 May 1936
• Docket Number: No. 7983.,7983.
• Citation: 83 F.2d 999
• Parties: CITY OF HIALEAH v. HARRIS et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

83 F.2d 999 (1936)

CITY OF HIALEAH v. HARRIS et al.

No. 7983.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

May 22, 1936.

Martin F. Whelan, Jr., and N. J. Rosenstein, both of Miami, Fla., for appellant.

Herbert S. Sawyer, of Miami, Fla., for appellee.

Before SIBLEY, HUTCHESON, and WALKER, Circuit Judges.¹

SIBLEY, Circuit Judge.

The appellees recovered judgment against the appellant on certain past-due bonds and interest coupons. The pleas on which the trial was had were that the writings sued on were not the deeds of the defendant-appellant and that the plaintiffs-appellees were not at the time of the filing of the suit or the pleas the owners, holders, or bearers in any capacity of said writings. The plaintiffs alleged in the declaration that they were a Bondholders Protective Committee, and exhibited the agreement by which bonds issued by the defendant were to be deposited with them, and that the bonds and coupons sued on had been deposited with them and that accordingly they had legal title to them under an express trust. They also alleged generally that they were the bearers and owners of the bonds and coupons, which were payable to bearer. Proof was made of the execution and statutory validation of the bonds and coupons, and they were admitted in evidence. The deposit agreement signed by the committee, including all the plaintiffs, was introduced, which provided for bondholders becoming parties by depositing their bonds with a named depository bank, they to receive a certificate of the deposit. There was testimony from the secretary of the committee that the bonds and coupons sued on were deposited with the depository under the agreement before the suit was instituted, that the depository held them for the committee, and that they were delivered to plaintiffs' counsel on order of the committee. No evidence was introduced for the defense, but a motion was made to dismiss the case because, as was proven, two weeks previously a jury had been impaneled to try it and the plaintiffs had introduced evidence which the court thought was insufficient to show their ownership of the bonds and coupons; plaintiffs then had asked time to send for a witness at a distance, whereupon the court of its own motion discontinued the trial, dismissed the jury, and set the case for hearing at a later date. This motion to dismiss was overruled and a verdict directed for plaintiffs. The refusal to dismiss and the direction of the verdict are alone urged as error.

The abortive trial decided nothing and prejudiced no one. The court in effect declared a mistrial and continued the case to a later date. There was no adjudication for either party. Appellant argues that the plaintiffs having gone to trial and failed to prove their case, a nonsuit or a directed verdict or some other termination of the suit should have followed, and that a dismissal ought now to result. But no...